Can you get LOR TOO early?

[reluctantoptimism]

I was wondering if you can get LORs too early (i.e. a year or so before you apply might look bad)?

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[razor]

can you ask your letter writer to type up a draft now while you are fresh in their mind and have them save it til next year? they can update it next year and put a current date on it.

 

[philosonista]

bump

 

[valormorghulis]

Bump.

I'm shadowing a pediatrician at the moment but I'm entering my first year of college in September. It seems weirdly early to ask for a LOR right now...

 

[Lucca]

Bump.

I'm shadowing a pediatrician at the moment but I'm entering my first year of college in September. It seems weirdly early to ask for a LOR right now...

THIS is too early. Junior year for applying the summer before senior year is a pretty good time to start accruing LORs in my opinion. There's no point in asking for a LOR before you have a GPA, an MCAT score, clinical experience and a carefully thought out reason for wanting to go to medical school in my opinion. Until you have all of those things there is no reason to believe you should be going to medical school in the first place.

 

[xerei]

Pros: They'll remember you very distinctly if you ask soon. If you wait years, they'll slowly forget. You'll also have less to worry about.

Possible cons: Some of my letter-writers told me to give them some insight into what I've learned over my college years and why I want to be a doctor, and some of them specifically told me they would incorporate some of those aspects in my letters so that the whole application (my personal statement, activities, letters) writes a better narrative (ie it all flows together). I guess if you ask right now, you might not be able to do this? But if they don't want you to in the first place, it's not really a con.

 

[md-2020]

Don't ask for a LOR from a shadowing experience if possible.

 

[You're My Boy Blue]

I started shadowing the summer before college too. You're getting in the game early which is great. Continue shadowing the physician throughout college ( at least a few times a year) then ask for the letter when you're ready to apply. The doc will know you better and will (hopefully) write a better, more thoughtful, LoR

 

[SmurfingReviews]

I agree with other posts that are on here that says it's too early given that you don't know when you will apply. I say this for several reason. First is that letter that you get is a confidential letter, meaning that you cannot see the letter yourself. Given that if you ask for the letter now you need to have it sealed by the reference and leave it like that until you apply. Since the letter also have to be in official letterhead with date and everything that might be weird seeing 2015 written when you decide to apply next cycle 2016 or even the following on in 2017. Another reason is that while currently you may have your mindset on applying as a traditional candidate, maybe something will come up in the future that delays your MCAT to be taken, or maybe you didn't do so well on the MCAT first time and you want to take a year off to study and take it again or something like that. I am not saying you are not capable of applying as a traditional student, but I'm saying that you cannot predict the future and as stated previously that having the letter when you don't know when you will apply is something that you probably want to refrain from doing.

Here's what I think you should do.

Still maintain close communications with whomever you are getting your letter from. Make some notes/points for them to remember when you do ask for reference letter when you do apply. Make sure you have everything ready (updated resume, PS, schools that you are applying, anything else that they need/ask) when you do ask and make sure there is ample amount of time when you do apply.

In the mean time do your best, and also enjoy your undergrad!

 

[valormorghulis]

Thanks to everyone who answered. I knew it was ridiculously early for LORs, but I wasn't sure if I could do anything else with the shadowing. I'm planning on following this advice:

I started shadowing the summer before college too. You're getting in the game early which is great. Continue shadowing the physician throughout college ( at least a few times a year) then ask for the letter when you're ready to apply. The doc will know you better and will (hopefully) write a better, more thoughtful, LoR

Thank you! I'm going to do this. I like how it lets the physician kind of see me grow throughout college too. I'll be sure to ask him if I can come back every now and then.

Don't ask for a LOR from a shadowing experience if possible.

I've seen a few people on SDN say this, but it still seems like most people tend to get their LORs from physicians that they've shadowed. Could you explain why LORs from shadowing experiences aren't a good idea?

 

[largelyuntrustworthy]

I've seen a few people on SDN say this, but it still seems like most people tend to get their LORs from physicians that they've shadowed. Could you explain why LORs from shadowing experiences aren't a good idea?

I believe the idea is that what could they possibly have to say? "X person generally was not annoying and in the way of my providing care." If you know them in some other capacity (scribe, tech, etc or as a professor) then maybe.

 

[SmurfingReviews]

I've seen a few people on SDN say this, but it still seems like most people tend to get their LORs from physicians that they've shadowed. Could you explain why LORs from shadowing experiences aren't a good idea?

I don't think is good or bad, but I this is what I heard from my mentors that are in the adcom (n=3). They feel like shadowing someone is not a good indication of clinical experience for few reasons. First is that while you see the routines of how X (where X is the specialty in medicine) is done the person who is shadowing really do not have much to do LEGALLY. Why is that? Well given that they have no certifications, degree, qualifications all they can do at the most is just stand there and take notes. Even if during shadowing someone has the opportunity to do something for the physician there are limitations. For example when I was volunteering at the ER, there was a patient that had to get an emergency procedure and all I could do was provide support (get things for nurse like materials, get all the paper work done for order, take care of queue, etc.), and also watch the procedure from afar. Was it great? Yea it was pretty cool seeing the procedure, but I wished I had done more and was a bit disappointed that there were restrictions. Due to the limitations I feel like the physicians that you shadow will have limited things that they can say about you, like how you work as a team, how you are in stressful situation, etc which could be better told by someone that actually worked with you in academic setting/professional setting.

However if your shadowing experience is more than just observing clinicians in their daily routine, might be not a bad idea!

Hope that helps.

 

[Lucca]

Thanks to everyone who answered. I knew it was ridiculously early for LORs, but I wasn't sure if I could do anything else with the shadowing. I'm planning on following this advice:



Thank you! I'm going to do this. I like how it lets the physician kind of see me grow throughout college too. I'll be sure to ask him if I can come back every now and then.



I've seen a few people on SDN say this, but it still seems like most people tend to get their LORs from physicians that they've shadowed. Could you explain why LORs from shadowing experiences aren't a good idea?

They tend to be genetically positive. Letters of rec are meant to provide credibility to the positive qualities you are presenting in your app.

 

[md-2020]

Could you explain why LORs from shadowing experiences aren't a good idea?

The letters won't be strong enough. Even if you shadow the same doc for 3 years, all they can say is something along the line of "attentive...interested...smart etc etc" which is pretty bland/general as far as LORs go. You want people that work with or supervise you, such as professors, lab PIs, coaches, mentors, etc. Shadowing=observing. "He was the best student observed ever!"=nothing.

 

[valormorghulis]

Yeah, I can definitely see how they would start to all sound the same... Thanks to everyone who answered my questions again!